Exactly... They did some cool stuff, especially as their line evolved and they realized the figures needed articulation, but at the end of the day they were too big to army build, they were too big to display EVERY character you'd want, they were too big for things like horses, worgs, trolls, and other "things" to be really practical.

I completely do not expect anything positive with this line, but maybe with my sights set so low, I'll be impressed more easily?

I agree too, there's a quality drop off, but how many companies are even doing true action figure lines, like we were (or are) used to even? LOTR/The Hobbit are a franchise that really could get the Star Wars treatment... There's a lot there. Maybe not AS deep as Star Wars, but deeper than say Indiana Jones. There's so much potential, but not many people out there who can handle the load, meet the quality demands to really do it justice, etc.

I agree to that to a certain extent, but my main issue is with some of their choices on articulation, especially in the hips, and paint apps, either of which could be corrected. But when compared to some other toy lines, we still see very well done head sculpts and accessories and other than one Indiana Jones figure, I don't think I've had a Hasbro action figure break just coming out of the package. I'm sure it happens, but it's not like it's SOP for Hasbro whereas I have had that happen with figures from other companies.

is "Toy Biz" even around anymore or did the Marvel sale phase them out?

ToyBiz became Marvel Toys then got wrapped up into Marvel Entertainment which is now owned by Disney. So? Idunno? Not really, I guess. The last line of toys they did was the Legendary Comic Book Heroes line. But that tanked after one or one and a half waves. Which was unfortunate because a couple of the figures slated for waves 2 and 3 would have been cool. And the build-a-figure Pitt from wave 1 is an incredible toy.

E...

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"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

I wasn't so much a fan of 8" scale figures when the LOTR line came out. But I was really impressed with the level of detail, articulation and accessories that could be done at that scale. I mean, we got ARROWS.

And with so many characters from LOTR returning in The Hobbit that had already been done in the Toy Biz line, the 8" scale would mesh well with what had come before. Although it would make a Smaug toy somewhat prohibitive.

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"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!

But I agree...they really really kicked it up a notch starting with TTT...I remember that the FOTR figures were good but not great likenesses...some of the ROTK and Trilogy figures are almost lifelike in their likeness

I thought the Fellowship figures were pretty dismal, actually. Poor articulation, pre-posed, lacked accessories... By line's end they were cranking out stuff that just floored you though, ultimately. That last Boromir for instance, Faramir, Gondorian Warrior, the last couple Aragorn/Strider figures... They did some doozies. The scale's just so meh though, when horses/mounts are important, big characters like Trolls and Balrogs, or dragons...

Lego has such a home run on their hands. Can you imagine working there, on this line, right now? You've got a license to print money.

But I agree...they really really kicked it up a notch starting with TTT...I remember that the FOTR figures were good but not great likenesses...some of the ROTK and Trilogy figures are almost lifelike in their likeness

I honestly wasn't sure if it was 6" or 8" scale. But I agree: the quality really picked up when they went to the more slimmed down basic figure packaging. On the packaging front alone, the original crescent shaped packages were HUGE and ate up a ton of peg space at retail. And when you do compare some of those original FOTR figures to the later trilogy figures the difference in likenesses was like night and day. But there were some absolutely great figures in the line overall.

For instance: the Trolls! Without going into movie spoiler territory (for a book that's been out for half a century ) , we know there are going to be some Trolls in the movie. Toy Biz made some pretty awesome trolls in the form of the cave troll and the battle troll. And they managed to do so in that 6" figure scale. Now a 3.75" scale would make the trolls considerably easier to do, but they wouldn't be anywhere near as impressive.

And on a similar note, could they manage to do horses as well in this scale, too?

We know how long it's taken Hasbro to get on board with ball jointed hips so that we could get a Sandtrooper that could ride a Dewback without looking perpetually bowlegged. Imagine a 3.75" scale Hobbit or Dwarf and the challenges those would pose to ball jointed hips so that they could ride horses as we've seen them do in the trailer from the other day.

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"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!

I'm thinking that a 3.75 line could be fine if the right kind of team was assembled to do it right... the technology is there to make exceptional figures in the 3.75 scale, we see if in Star Wars, some military figures like Jesse said, and I think the POP figures are actually about the very best figures I've ever seen made... no issues with figures popping apart from the ones that I bought. The film just didn't have a popular enough following for that toy line to take off.

Well, that's the challenge, isn't it? A license like both Hobbit films will have a run of about 2 years at retail, give or take. Hasbro's Star Wars & Marvel teams have licenses that will last far longer. And the same goes for most military figures. Those lines have a much longer lifespan and can support an in-house modeling/sculpting/engineering team. The Hobbit films don't have that going for them.

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"You were entrusted to lead the Republic." - Vote for Ven Zallow from THE OLD REPUBLIC in figure polls!

That's a really good point - it would be great if they released the LOTR trilogy in 3D or something in theaters again... maybe that could mean a 5 or 6 year run for a new line of figures... fun to dream at least...

You know what would also be great, some sort of cartoon that covered events in between the Hobbit and the trilogy... man, I'd be all over that if it was done with an adult audience in mind.

So, was there anything shown of the Hobbit toy line at Toy Fair? I'm guessing no, since I would think we would have seen something online, but I was hoping for a glimpse at what might be produced (aside from the LEGOs, which look amazing).

Unimax is picking up licenses... They do Forces of Valor, and their figure quality is pretty high on things like Assassin's Creed and others. Still think this would be a much more interesting line in 3.75" scale, especially since "armies" are such a large part of the works overall.

I think that's a big reason Lego's got what I think is an instant hit on their hands with the Tolkien license... It's just such a perfect fit for them. I drool with anticipation at picking those sets up.

I saw that BBTS put up some preorders for the Hobbit figure stuff. No pics (or names even), but it looks like they have both 3 3/4" and 6" assortments. Not much info outside of that so far though, I think I saw some were due around October, which seems about right I guess.